Addis Tribune (Addis Ababa)
21 March 2003
The world's only flying eye hospital and teaching facility landed at Bole International Airport on Wednesday on a three-week training programme to prevent and cure blindness.
While in Addis Ababa the training programme will give service in four areas: ophthalmic, biomedical, nursing and anaesthesia. "I am grateful for this opportunity to increase my abilities to successfully perform corneal transplantation surgeries, which could potentially restore sight to thousands of Ethiopian men, women and children," Dr. Yonas Tilahun, assistant professor of ophthalmology at the Addis Ababa University, said.
The flying hospital, a DC-10, is one of the vehicles used by ORBIS International to strengthen the skills of Ethiopian eye care professionals to manage and treat eye diseases. The aircraft contains examination and laser treatment room, an operating room, an audio-visual studio, a 48-seat classroom, a biomedical training area and medical libraries.
The lectures for this training programme are volunteering highly qualified eye specialists from Canada, Italy, UK and USA, and the education will be given through practical lessons while the patients are those who normally would not be able to afford the treatment.
Today, an estimated 900,000 Ethiopians are blind and 3 to 4 million are at the risk of losing their sight unless quality eye care is available, though the technology exists to prevent or cure 80% of these cases. Nearly 50% of the medical equipment in Ethiopia is non-functional. "We can reduce this shocking percentage through specialised training programs", Engineer Salomon, director of the National Scientific Equipment Centre said. "The challenge remains how to deliver the appropriate knowledge of where it is needed most," the Country Director of ORBIS International (Ethiopia), Dr Wondu Alemayehu said.
The flying eye hospital will be parked at Bole International Airport until Thursday next week. ORBIS International is a non-profit organisation and has been working on the prevention of blindness in Ethiopia since 1999.
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